The word “Green” has got to be the most popular word of 2009. It seems like every other commercial and newspaper article is referring to a way to go green. With all of the attention going green is getting these days, why not make a profit along with help the environment. There is nothing wrong with making a living off of this trend, as long as you are actually giving back to the planet.
It’s kind of ironic, but as I am writing this post on the balcony of my condo, I have seen a entire family eating snacks on the beach just walk away and leave their trash right there. While I am probably not the most environmentally conscientious person in the world, I do love this planet, and I think that the majority of consumers out there do also.
The Green Trend cannot really be considered a trend anymore, and I think in the future most businesses are going to have to go green or go broke, so why not get a head start. He are twenty “Green Business” ideas you can start now. If you already have a business and would like to offer green services, or get accreditation for marketing, check out the Green Business Bureau here. They can help out with all of the details for you.
(1)Home Insulation: Fiberglass and asbestos are becoming things of the past. The problem is that there are not that many insulation companies out there that offer more green products. Starting a company that offers bio based spray insulation, and recycled denim insulation is a sure fire way to be successful in just about any city. More and more new home construction is being based on a point system for how much energy they conserve. The better they score, the better the resale value of the house will be, not to mention the huge tax break the government is offering for recycled product use and energy conservation. The long and short of it is, this is a business where the demand is higher than the supply, so get out there and do it already!
(2)Start a Recycling Center: Believe it or not, there is quite a bit of money to be made by recycling in mass. Open up a warehouse in your neighborhood where people can drop off waste. You can even pay them for recyclables. Sure, you’ll get some crack heads stopping by, but their trash is just as good as any. How it works, your main job will be sorting. As people drop off their old newspapers and bottles, and what ever else you decide to accept, you just sort into into categories, i.e. high end paper, newspaper, glass, plastic, and metal. After you start to accumulate enough, you will want to palletize it and ship it off to the buyers. Paper companies will buy back paper, and glass companies will buy back glass etc. This is your job to find the places to return the goods. You could always just take them to a bigger recycling center for a profit.
The most important thing is community involvement. As long as you keep a clean warehouse, and keep the tires from accumulating outside, the community will have pride and support you for your efforts, and you will make a living helping the environment. If you think there is no money in recycling, let me give you a little break down.
- Newspapers – $55 to $60 per ton
- Cardboard – $80 per ton
- Office paper – $125 per ton
- Aluminum – $1200 to $1800 per ton
- Ink Cartridges – $1200 to $2000 per 1000
- Copper – $3500 – $4000 per ton
- Steel/Iron – $500 per ton
- Radiators – $3000 per ton
- Glass – $300 per ton (pending on the type of glass)
I am sure you can see how this business could add up very quickly. Think about setting up recycling drums around popular places. A paper drum would be great around office buildings, and a aluminum drum would be great around parks and bars. Stop in restaurants and bars to see if you can set one up inside.
(3)Service company using environmentally friendly products: Think about how many service businesses out there don’t even consider what their chemicals are doing to the earth. Start a service company that uses environmentally friendly products, and market the hell out of it. If you start a cleaning company, name it Green Clean, or if your a painter you could call it; We Paint it Green. You would be very surprised to find out just how many consumers will choose your company over someone elses because you care about the earth.
Here are a few ideas of service businesses that could use some greening up:
- Salons
- Carpet Cleaning
- Painters
- Lawn Care
- Dry Cleaning
(4)Bio-Diesel producer and reseller: Bio-Diesel is possibly the fuel of the future. It is cleaner, and cheaper than the alternatives. Millions could be made from someone who is willing to go through the hoops of getting this business started. Many people are looking for bio-diesel, but not many people are finding it.
To get started you need to find vegetable oil. Go to all of the restaurants you can find, especially Chinese restaurants and offer to take it off of their hands. Once you have an abundance of oil, now is the time to clean it. This is where it gets tough. You need to register with the EPA to get a license to produce and sell bio-diesel. As long as you follow their guidelines, getting a permit shouldn’t be to difficult. The great thing about producing bio-diesel is that, not only do you get paid per gallon to sell it, but the federal government offers a tax break of $1.50 per gallon for production of alternative fuel sources, and some states also offer a separate deduction. Once your up and running, you can go and sell your product to trucking and heavy equipment companies along with anyone running a diesel engine. Your name will get out, and people will find you.
(5)Green Consultant: Tax breaks are huge for businesses who lower their energy costs. Many businesses and individuals are very interested in going green, but have no idea where to start. That’s where you come in as a green consultant. Show them how to lower their carbon footprint, and charge for your services. Your expertise is going to save them thousands of dollars, what is your information worth to them?
(6)Product Design using recycled products: We recently had a podcast interview with Ken Kobrick, co-founder of Passchal (you can listen to it here). Ken and his partner Angela Greene make high end handbags out of recycled tractor tires. They have recycled over 32 tons of inner tubes since they started their business. There are so many products out there that could be produced by using recycled products, and doing so will instantly get you a huge following of Eco fans. I have seen companies make things out of used license plates, and many other things. Be creative. Just keep something from going to a landfill by using in your product, and you will be on your way to being a successful green business.
(7)Green Home Builder: Green homes are all the rage these days, and you could lead the way by offering your building services. As a green home builder, not only will you need to have an extensive knowledge of the building process, but you will also need to understand the Green Point System rating, and know how to find recycled products to use in the homes, i.e. plumbing fixtures, flooring, and woodwork.
You do not need a whole lot of money up front to get this business started, because you will receive a large retainer fee from the future homeowners, and you will be sub-contracting most of the work out. Just make sure you know what your talking about, and word of mouth will have you scheduling your services many years into the future!
(8)Used Building Products Sales: Start a small shop, and watch it grow real quick. If all of these Green homes are going up everywhere, then they are going to need some Green building products. Let’s face it, you can’t go to your local home improvement center and find a used bathtub or light fixture, and if you take a look at your local landfill, I bet you see thousands of them. You can literally start a home improvement center full of recycled products. I promise your customers will come.
Promote yourself by doing a press release in all of the local media. Many people will start calling you when they want to throw away a bathtub, or some doorknobs. Before you know it you will have a 50,000 square foot building full of supplies. Look closely to reclaim lumber. When you are able to recycle lumber, you are not only keeping something out of landfills, but you are saving trees (and people pay top dollar for reclaimed lumber) In old houses you can find perfectly good hardwood floors, doors, and woodwork trim. You can also mill out woodwork and flooring from old beams in old barns, that you can obtain for free. After a little elbow grease, you can sell your woodwork for up to $20 per linear foot!
(9)Solar/Alternative Energy: Go take a look in your phonebook, and you will quickly see that there are not many, if any people offering solar energy, but every home improvement show on television shows new people installing monster panels on there rooftops. Educate yourself on this process, and be the first company in your neighborhood to help people install there systems. Solar panels and windmills can cut down if not eliminate your need for purchased electric, and with the price of energy skyrocketing, there is going to be a major demand for this service. The government is offering homeowners a $1500 deduction for using solar energy, so you could use that information in advertising your business. ”Let me help you eliminate your energy costs AND get a $1500 tax break”. If you can show people how you can help them save money and help the environment, I guarantee you will have a line of people willing to purchase your services.
(10)Rainwater Recycling systems: Again, look in your phonebooks and find someone offering this service. Not many of them out there. Installing rainwater collection systems is a huge business with many possible customers from residential to commercial to heavy industrial. Once again, you are helping people save money, and the environment. It’s a win win for everyone involved, including your bank account!!!
(11)Electric Vehicle Sales: Car lots are every where, but not many of them that cater to the environmentally friendly customers. Start out with a small car lot offering Eco friendly vehicles. SELL EVERYTHING from bicycles to smart cars to Segways. The point being to have a full range of low emission transportation available. Advertise by telling people how much money they can save in gas and about the tax breaks available. Once again, it is easy to sell a win win situation. They save money on gas, get a tax break, and help the Earth, so COME ON DOWN!!!
(12)Green Furniture Builder: Find reclaimed or fallen lumber after a strong storm, and build your furniture. Get a stamp of approval from the Green Business Bureau and you will have customers ordering your furniture from all over the world. Use Green lacquers and paint, and be creative. Also think about making furniture from bamboo, and other highly renewable sources.
(13)Tree Nursery: Become Little Johnny Apple Seed. What could be more green than selling more trees and plants to the world. If you have some land, start growing some trees. With time, this can be a very profitable business. Your not just going to wake up some day, and have an entire forest of mature trees growing in your back field, but with great planning this can be a great family business for many decades to come. You can supplement your income by selling specialty seasonal plants like poinsettias, and hanging baskets. In five years, you could build a business that your great grandchildren can run many years later. Generate a buzz for your business buy donating saplings to the local schools for planting on Arbor Day with your company name and number on each plant.
(14)Organic Farm: Have you priced organic foods lately? They are through the roof. Consumers who purchase organic foods are very committed to their foods, and wouldn’t think of buying anything else regardless of the price. You don’t need thousands of acres to get this business started. You can easily start with a small garden or green house in your backyard and grow from there. Just take a few gardening classes at your local community college, and start growing. The important thing is to make sure you don’t use any pesticides, and your soil is very good. Start composting now, and use the compost in your garden. Your fruits and vegetables can be sold to Whole Food grocery stores, or you could just open your own organic food store, and you could even start setting up at the local farmers markets in your town.
(15)Inventor: This new trend has to be a inventors dream. Most inventors spend all of their lives trying to reinvent the wheel. Now you have this brand new huge forum just waiting for new products. There are thousands of possibilities in this niche. Just find a way to make anything that is out there more efficient. Make it use less energy. There is already a gigantic fan base just drooling for new products. What are you waiting for? Invent them already.
(16)Real Estate Developer: Plan and develop a entire Green mini neighborhood. If you have a knack for community planning, then this is a great money making opportunity for you. Find great plots of land that you can build around the environment, without affecting to much of the foliage. If you do have to cut down a tree or two, find a way to use them in the construction of the buildings. Plan on all of the houses being completely green. With all of the press on Green construction right now, you can be sure to get quite a few interviews from different media streams on your project. If you plan the development well enough, you are sure to have every last home sold before they are even done being built. There are some really great manufactured houses you can buy nowadays that are totally green, and reasonably priced. You could always just pour the foundations, order about 35 manufactured homes, and have your entire project done in twelve months. Not to mention having a few million in your pocket!
(17)Bamboo Farm: Most people think that bamboo only grows in exotic tropical locations, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Sure there are some species of bamboo that needs year around heat to grow, but there are many other species that will grow so much that it will get on your nerves. Bamboo is actually a grass, and grows faster than any other woody plant in the world, making it a incredible renewable resource for construction, flooring, and furniture building. Some species of bamboo can actually grow up to two feet a day.
Having a bamboo farm, I can pretty much guarantee you that you won’t have much competition around town. You can make your money by selling to builders, flooring makers, and gardeners. You can also make a nice serene area with different species of bamboo where families can pay to tour your farm.
(18)Eco Tours and Education: Get a boat or a 15 passenger van, and take people on tours of our beautiful world. Educate them, and let them see the damage pollution is causing to the planet. If you have access to a great lake or ocean, or large forest, you can charge a considerable amount of money per person per tour. This can be a lot of fun, and a very rewarding business. If people have the opportunity to see a different side of the planet, you might be able to teach them more about conservation.
(19)Grass Roofer: If you have roofing experience, this can be a great business for those in an urban environment. Grass roofing can really help a urban environment, because there is almost no room for plants, and plants put of oxygen, and suck up carbon dioxide that pollutes our air, so by adding grass roofs, you are helping the entire Eco-system in an urban environment. The are not many roofers out there who offer this service, so people looking to have a roof like this installed are having to locate roofers from other cities to come in and steal your job security. There are many apartment buildings and corporate offices who recently have been adding grass roofing. So get your tools and start advertising
(20)Blogger/E-Magazine: Start a blog or E-zine about going green. Give people the resources they need to have an impact on the environment. You will already have a green business just by publishing your articles in a digital form instead of printing them on paper. Find related advertisers to sell space to on your site to help you generate income
Summary: The “Green” trend is here to stay. It’s not going anywhere. Jump on board now, and become a pioneer. It has created new business opportunities for many people, so start your new Green business today. Marketing as a certified green business will open you up to a whole new clientele, and you can feel great that your helping the planet.
Resources:
- Green Business Bureau: If you are serious about starting a green business, or just want to transform your current business into a green business, than this is the place to go. They can give you the “Stamp” of approval!
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